Tuesday, March 24, 2015

The Propaganda War With Russia


There is an interesting twist to the ongoing war of words with Russia over its actions in Ukraine that is little discussed in the mainstream media.  The United States State Department is using its Russian language UkrProgress Twitter account with the hashtag #UnitedforUkraine to counter what the United States considers to be Russian propaganda on its activities in Ukraine.  While most of the tweets are in Russian, here are some of the more interesting English language posts by the State Department:





If you follow the links listed on the tweets, many of them take you to stories on the ShareAmerica website.  What is ShareAmerica?  It is the Department of State's "...platform for sharing compelling stories and images that spark discussion and debate on important topics like democracy, freedom of expression, innovation, entrepreneurship, education and the role of civil society."  In other words, propaganda from a State Department/Washington viewpoint.

And, as though it really matters, the State Department seems to feel that voting on a new design for police cars in Kyiv is a positive sign of democratic reform in Ukraine:


And, just so it doesn't appear that the United States stands alone, here is a tweet showing that Canada stands behind Ukraine:



To close, here are two interesting tweets showing the high cost of the Russian takeover of Crimea when it comes to buying groceries and the high economic cost of the "illegal referendum":



The use of a social media account permits the U.S. Department of State to take a much harsher and unrestricted stand against Russia than normal official diplomatic statements would allow.

2 comments:

  1. Just so your readers have an idea about the cost of potatoes in the US according to http://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/AverageRetailFoodAndEnergyPrices_USandMidwest_Table.htm

    The average us cost of 2.2 pounds of potatoes is $1.42.

    So let me be the first to both Kiev and Sevastopol pay of heck of lot less then we in the US do either way you look at it. Maybe the can propagandize up a reason for that!

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  2. I would like to point out that if the news in America seems to be more skewed lately it may be the government is more involved it writing it. For decades a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences.

    On July 2, 2013 that taboo came silently to an end with the implementation of a new law passed in January. This unleashes thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption. This "reform" was criticized by many human rights activist as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts. More on the implications of this new law in the article below.

    http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/07/when-propaganda-and-surveillance.html

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